The Conservatives say race and ethnicity shouldn't enter into the hiring process for federal jobs and have ordered a review of affirmative action policies.

They want to look at government hiring practices, which currently give priority to qualified applicants from minority groups.

New Democrat MP Pat Martin called the move a “full-frontal attack on affirmative action.”

Visible minorities, including aboriginals, have long been underrepresented in the public service.

Treasury Board President Stockwell Day said no Canadian should be barred from a federal job because of race or ethnicity.

“While we support diversity in the public service, we want to ensure that no Canadian is barred from opportunities in the public service based on race or ethnicity,” Mr. Day said in a statement.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who was also involved in the decision, said hiring should be based on merit.

“I strongly agree with the objective of creating a public service that reflects the diversity of Canada, and with fair measures designed to reach that goal,” he said in a statement.

“But we must ensure that all Canadians have an equal opportunity to work for their government based on merit, regardless of race or ethnicity.”

The government's latest figures show more women, aboriginals and visible minorities worked in the public service last year than the year before. The number of people with disabilities stayed the same.

As of March 2009, women made up 54.7 per cent of the federal workforce, aboriginals made up 4.5 per cent, people with disabilities made up 5.9 per cent and visible minorities made up 9.8 per cent.

The federal government relies on data from Statistics Canada to set hiring targets.

The announcement came a day after the country's chief statistician, Munir Sheikh, resigned over the government's decision to axe the mandatory long census form.

Mr. Martin said the government is off-base on the hiring issue.

“It is paranoia on their part, though, because we are nowhere near achieving equity in the face of the public-service workforce,” he said.

“I don't think they can make a case that white, middle-class people are being denied access to public service jobs, or that there's any preference shown.”

Latest Comments

DenFMoral

7/23/2010 3:46:59 AMOne can only surmise that those who are vehemently opposed to abolishing affirmative action are deathly afraid of having to compete for their positions based on merit!

But really this is just a bunch of partisan whining on behalf of obsessed liberals - Stephen harper could singlehandedly cure cancer and engineer world peace and they would be deathly opposed to it, because they hate the man, and it's a pure hatred, the kind of hate that rational people can never understand.

It's sad when the "left" doesn't believe in merit as criterion to make hiring decisions. And if you say that you do, but you don't trust people of their own ethnicity to hire others purely based on merit, then you are simply a bigot.